We are guilty. We forgot about cleaning up our pumpkin for a week. We did finally throw it out last weekend. Aria got a good look at it before we threw it out and hasn't stopped talking about it since (even a week later).
Before
After
Check out the little chew marks! Atleast we fed a (probably starving) chipmunk.
One of Aria's many discussions about the pumpkin. She is right though, it was GROSS!
Aria's sporting her new hat on the train!
She still didn't want to ride a horse. She tried it out and quickly decided it wasn't a good idea. Maybe next time.
One last ride on the train before we go!
Just to add to the flurry of posts in one night, I thought I'd mention our trip to the eye doctor this morning. We've been going every 3 months or so, for regular check-ups for Aria's patching. There has been some decent improvement, but the real cool thing is that Aria was awesome the whole time—though it didn't seem it would be that way at first... (as I write this, I see a squiggly-lined fade out to a flashback—diddle-liddle-oo! diddle-liddle-oo!)
This morning, she woke up fine, got out of bed, let me change her diaper, then the tantrums started.
First, she wanted the PJs off, without my help which she's able to do now. fine. "I won't help you, please don't get upset because I looked at you, Aria."
Then she had to dress herself. "But both legs won't fit into one pant leg." I even went so far as to take my pants off to show her how to do it. didn't help. she WOULD NOT let me touch her to help. She actually did get both legs into one pant leg at one point, and to show her it wasn't gonna work like that, I told her to go look at the school bus outside. she stood up, then kinda rolled over. we both laughed. :-)
It's now almost 7:45, we have to leave no later than 8:30, and I know that breakfast, getting her lunch ready, and getting her other school stuff together as well as us into the car can take up to 45 minutes. I decided to take matters into my own hands and put JUST HER FEET into the correct pant legs. Aria was then able to pull up her pants. "You need to pull them up in the back Aria, your pants are caught on your diaper."
Now the meltdown. The shirt. I stupidly put it on her all by myself. She's hyperventilating, pulling at the shirt with all her might trying to take it off while I take her downstairs. She's gyrating as I'm trying to place her in her chair for lunch. screaming at the top of her lungs. FUN! I stay calm. I make her breakfast which she of course doesn't want. she wouldn't even want juice and popsicles with lollipops on the side if I offered em at this point.
So. I reset. I took her out of her high chair. Laid her in the middle of the family room (because she kept throwing herself back when I tried to sit her down), and explained to her that we had to go to the eye doctor and she wasn't cooperating. "I know you love dressing yourself, and you hate it when your routine is messed up, but we have to work together this morning, please?"
I let her cry for about 2 minutes while I got her lunch and other things together. Time Management 101! Then, I went to her, hugged her, she returned the hug, and I talked to her some more about everything. She was ready to eat breakfast! I always let her take her time eating, I got totally ready, we got out the door at 8:40. not bad.
Now let me flashback again. over the weekend, I kept reminding her of Doctor Territo. It got to the point where I could say "Aria we're going to see Doctor Territo on Monday morning." and she would respond with "Doctor Rito look at eye. No hurt Aria." So when all these tantrums were happening, I was getting stressed for what could possibly happen when we got to the doctor's office. It was pretty bad on previous visits (slight flashback there).
well, the whole car ride, she was fine. we get there, she's fine. we get into the exam room, and when the doctor came in, she gave him a pouty face. I thought "oh no here we go..." But she didn't cry. The doctor went through his routine, and Aria took to it. she even answered his questions, and took a little test with pictures of objects on a screen, telling him whether it was a bird, car, hand, or birthday cake.
Since this was really the first time we were able to do these advanced tests with Aria, there was no real baseline until now. Now we have something to look forward to at the next visit!
Aria is a little obsessed with Hide and Seek. She's got most of the game rules down too. I think we need to brush up though because we tend to make it into a game of jump-out-and-scare-Aria. She enjoys it either way. I think you can tell by her giggles.
Of course we carved Aria's favorite character!
Goofydaddy (and yes, he is goofy) dressed as Sponge Bob to hand out treats (Sponge Bob tatoos-how appropriate?) for the kids. He had the voice down and everything.
Aria met up with Austin and they had so much fun going around to the neighbor's houses. Aria would yell, "come on guys!" as we walked down the street and Austin had "Trick-or-treat" down. It's like they were old pros as this stuff.
We met up with Sydney, another girl on the street, for a quick picture. Kids are just so cute all dressed up!
What's Halloween without a taste of the sweet stuff. Thankfully, there has been no mention from Aria about candy after Friday night. She sure did enjoy that lollipop!
Aria has slept without her pacifier for 3 (going on 4) nights in a row. Her love affair with the "paci" has been a long one and it was time after two whole years to give it up. The withdrawal began last weekend when we snipped the tip of the two we store in her dresser drawer. When she went to get one, it perplexed her but she still used it! And then a couple nights later, I snipped it again. With just a small nub she still continued to use it a couple more nights. Then on Friday, the paci was nowhere to be found. We kept low key about it and when she asked a couple times we quickly said, "baby-cousin Felipe needed it." Surprisingly, she stopped asking and went to sleep no problem (with one or two more "buddies" in her bed and 3 extra books read). This weekend she woke up an hour earlier than normal, but that's not too bad. There's been little mention of the paci, which is just plain a miracle! Tonight she came into her room after her bath (this is where she normally yells "PACI!" and runs to her drawer to get it) and then she babbled something that had "Felipe" in it. She is such a good girl. So now, we need to get rid of our hidden paci stash! It's up to us to stick to it now, it's in her best interest if she's not re-introduced (on purpose or mistake).
On a side note, Aria is now in her Junior Bed. We took the crib rails off and she has just a lower-half-thingy that keeps her from rolling out. She's had that for 2 weeks and hasn't once gotten out of bed without us in the room. I know it won't always be like that, but it sure is nice for now. I really didn't think that was possible!
The moral of this post is...I'm constantly surprised at what my daughter can handle and do. Sometimes I feel like we hold her back when it comes to things like the paci. I'm glad WE finally figured out that she can handle the change (although change is scary sometimes for her and us).
I work in a large production room (3 workstations, giant work table, large-format inkjet & big color laser printers). And the cool thing now that I'm coming into work more these days is it's still like working from home—my lazy coworker now only comes in twice a week, and for maybe 4 hrs each of those 2 days. He "works from home" the other days. That got the sarcastic quotes because it's questionable whether or not he actually does any work while he's at home. I and others have brought up our issues with this guy to his manager and the group's manager, but the main problem is he does just enough work to appear productive... I could go on and on about this guy. but I won't.
So, I get to play music at a nice volume, and have the convenience of seeing people I need to see, and keep the office doors closed—a cypher lock is a good thing. :-)
